Indie Game Marketing Case
-App: Agency simulation for digital marketing courses App: Simulação de agência para disciplinas de marketing digital
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OVERVIEWVISÃO GERAL

Your students become an agency, and a game studio walks in with a problem. Each group gets a fictional indie studio as its client, with a one-page brief, the studio's own analytics, a brand handout, a library of industry reports, and a client they can question in a live chat. The brief says what the client thinks they need. The data and the conversation tell the rest.

Format Group case simulation, in class
Level Intro to advanced marketing courses
Cases 5 fictional studios · 8 industry reports
Language English
Runs on Any modern browser · no accounts, no installs
Used in MKTG 4560 · Digital Marketing (Fall 2026)
LAUNCH APP ↗ABRIR APP ↗ USE IT IN YOUR COURSE →USE NA SUA DISCIPLINA →
Students: you need the password and group number from your instructor.
The simulator showing the client brief for Hearthside, a cozy mobile game, with the client chat on the right.
WHAT STUDENTS GETO QUE OS ESTUDANTES RECEBEM
  • A client brief: the game, the client, the budget and the timeline, on one page.
  • Company reports: the studio's own player analytics and past campaign results.
  • A brand handout: logos, key art, screenshots, colours and voice, downloadable as PNG or SVG for slides.
  • Industry reports: eight short, neutral reports on players, payment, discovery, media costs, creators, retention and search. Every group sees all of them, so deciding which matter is part of the job.
  • The client: a scripted chatbot that answers in character. Some facts appear in no document and can only be found by asking the right questions.
HOW A SESSION RUNSCOMO FUNCIONA UMA SESSÃO
  • One student per group logs in with the class password and their group number.
  • Groups read the brief, research the reports and interview the client during class.
  • They build the strategy: market analysis, audience and persona, objectives, a PESO plan, creative, budget and measurement.
  • They download the chat transcript for their appendix and pitch the campaign to the client.
  • Two groups share each client, so the pitch shows how differently teams read the same brief.
A group asking the Pulse Dojo client about its buyers and past marketing, with the client's answers.
Interviewing the client · Pulse Dojo
The brand handout for Lanterns of Vell, with key art of a lighthouse and floating lanterns.
Brand handout · Lanterns of Vell
Industry report I-03, a table of how players discover games by type of game.
Industry report I-03 · How players find games
The client brief for Hearthside, a cozy café-and-garden game for phones.
Client brief · Hearthside
THE FIVE CLIENTSOS CINCO CLIENTES
Hearthside Cozy café-and-garden game · mobile · Maple & Moss Games
Lanterns of Vell Story game about a fishing town · PC · Lumen Fox Studio
Rift Rally Free-to-play 5v5 car arena · PC · Ironvale Games
Harbour & Hex Board game of rival harbour witches · tabletop · Kettle Pond Games
Pulse Dojo Rhythm-boxing workout · VR · Northbeam Interactive
Budgets range from $30,000 to $150,000 CAD. All companies, people and data are fictional.
FOR INSTRUCTORSPARA PROFESSORES
  • A password-protected instructor console with every case, the answer keys and the questions that unlock each case's hidden insights.
  • Assign groups to clients, change passwords, and edit any brief, report or client answer, without touching code.
  • A test mode shows which topic the chatbot matched for each question, so you can tune its answers.
  • Comes with an assignment description and a 42-point rubric that can be adapted to your course.

Interested in running it in your course? Get in touch.

PRIVACY & TECHNOLOGYPRIVACIDADE E TECNOLOGIA
  • No student accounts and no data collection. The app is a static page.
  • The client chat runs a small language model inside the browser, so nothing students type leaves their device.
  • The case content is encrypted and opens only with the class password.
  • The chat history stays in the browser that was used, and groups download it as a text file.
  • The first visit loads about 46 MB (the language model). After that it is cached.
AUTHORSHIP & LICENCEAUTORIA E LICENÇA
© 2026 Lucas B. Xavier. Concept, cases, reports, art, writing and code by Lucas B. Xavier.
Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial teaching with credit, and you must share adaptations under the same licence. Commercial use requires permission. Full notice · Third-party components.
Credit as: “Indie Game Marketing Case” by Lucas B. Xavier (lucasbxavier.com), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.